


In your eyes I see the truth

by Minne_My



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/F, Femslash, Unrequited Love, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23221648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minne_My/pseuds/Minne_My
Summary: It was a personality potion, not a love potion. It amounted to the same thing when it came to unrequited love
Relationships: Hecate Hardbroom/Ada Cackle
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	In your eyes I see the truth

There was no suggestion that this day would be unlike any other. No change in the wind; no scent in the air, no hair out of place. Not a protest from the cats. But at 1.30 pm, Miss Hardbroom had gone stark raving bonkers, changing the course of her life forever.

It was all the fault of that pesky personality potion. It had made her do idiotic things like dance in the corridors, accost her colleagues and say unspeakable things to the headmistress. Of all the things she could not recall, it was this that panicked her the most. Ada had been perfectly pleasant about it; told her not to worry, it hadn’t inconvenienced her at all. Hecate would have believed her if it wasn’t for the slight hesitation in her eyes as she turned to leave.

She hadn’t realised she’d said anything if it hadn’t been for the dreams. At first her colleagues had informed her of her long moment of madness which was embarrassing enough but when she’d noticed the evidence in Miss Cackle’s office, she’d started to worry, having been told of smacking Miss Drill in the face with a red rose. It was sitting on the desk, clasped by that nauseating ceramic white mouse, a constant reminder of her foolishness. It gnawed away at her once she’d started dreaming about things she’d done, things she’d said to Miss Cackle that she’d never dare to say.

The dreams persisted and she didn’t know what to do. Miss Cackle sometimes asked her if she was alright. She’d noticed the distant look in Hecate’s eyes on occasion; her attention slipping once in a while, most unusual for her deputy head. She wasn’t to know that Hecate was reluctantly trying to envision the situation in her dreams, where she trapped Ada up against the desk to say...what? It seemed like it had happened that way. What the dream didn’t tell her is how Miss Cackle had reacted. She’d always woken up at that point. She felt like she was being driven crazy. She’d even started fidgeting like a schoolgirl, alarming her friend most greatly.

It had taken two months for her to crack. Ada was surprised by the request to remember the events of that day. She assured Miss Hardbroom that nothing had happened; hoping that her face would not give away the rapid thump of her heart, wanting to spare her the mortification, struggled to keep her mouth shut beyond the necessary. The truth was that Hecate had shocked her with her declaration of love and adoration. Ada had thought that if anyone was going to do that, it would have been her. But out of self-preservation and for the good of the school, she had refrained. It would not do for a headmistress and her deputy to grow distant and awkward with each other once one had upset the equilibrium. It would not do at all.

She hadn’t known about the potion. She’d barely been able to react when the teachers had rushed in and restrained Miss Hardbroom. Dimity had rugby tackled her to the ground which would have been amusing any other day. This was the day that her life had turned upside down, when Hecate had transferred directly into her chair and gazed at her in a most brazen manner, hair all tumbled and cascading out of her strict bun. This was unprecedented. Hecate would never act so entitled. She took the headmistress’s chair seriously. Even invited she would not sit in Miss Cackle’s chair unless there was no other option. And Hecate certainly would never have looked at her in that manner on an ordinary day. That should have told Ada that something strange was happening but she, secretly trembling with the thrill it gave her to be stared at in that way, had said nothing.

_‘Hecate, do you need me for something?’_

_The woman just crossed her legs, smiled coquettishly and played with the red rose in her fingers. With her deputy head framed in an extraordinarily seductive pose, Ada felt a treacherous stirring in her heart, something that she could scarcely entertain for fear of admitting the truth. It had crept up on her so slowly that she’d never realised the full extent of her feelings until recently. All she’d wanted was to spend her life with her best friend, bask in the companionship they both enjoyed. Surely tea, cats and solitude were all that they needed?_

_Not so. Because when Hecate approached her with fire in her eyes, she didn’t resist. Mutely grasped the rose that was offered to her. Didn’t stop her from making her move._

_‘Let’s have some fun’ she whispered with a wicked grin, and Ada couldn’t say no. Didn’t want to say no._

_Maybe she liked it when her right-hand woman looked at her like she wanted to kiss her. Maybe she wanted to be pinned to the edge of the table and let wandering hands skim her thighs, all the way up to her hips. Maybe she needed to be told how much Hecate adored her. She never thought she’d hear it._

_If only their lips had touched so Ada would know if it was real. It had almost happened. Except that the door had opened and Miss Drill had barrelled in, determined to save her from some unknown fate at the hands of the Hardbroom. Feeling caught out, Ada pushed back and sent Hecate spinning, only to be captured and thrown to the floor. Ada winced at the bruises Hecate was going to sustain but the woman seemed not to notice._

_‘Yes Dimity, everything is fine’ she told her zealous colleague. ‘Is there something going on?’_

_‘She’s ingested some drops of personality potion but no harm done, we’ll get her back to rights’ said Dimity, hauling a still uncharacteristic Hecate out of the room._

_Ada hated to admit to herself that she’d been disappointed to know that it was the potion that had made Hecate act that way. Ever since then, she’d been unreachable, even in Ada’s dreams._

‘Tell me what I did? Please?’

Hecate’s distress tugged at Ada’s heart. She needed to lie again and reassure her that nothing had happened. But this time the lie stuck in her throat.

Hecate waited tensely; her hands curled into fists on her lap.

Ada tried to choose her words carefully.

‘I didn’t know that you were under the influence of a personality potion. I should have questioned why you were acting so unlike yourself. I let things go too far.’

The dread stole up from Hecate’s heart and crept up her chest, constricting her breathing and wriggled through her head. Ada’s head was bowed, not meeting her eyes and not noticing her behaviour.

‘I thought I’d imagined it. The way you looked at me.’

‘What?’

Ada looked up at her, blue eyes bleached by uncertainty.

‘You’d never looked at me that way before.’

For a minute, time in that office had stopped.

‘I must have imagined it.’

Hecate couldn’t stand it any longer. It was now or never.

‘I may have been under the effects of a potion and I may not be able to recall everything but I’m getting flashbacks in my dreams. I know something happened that you’re not telling me. I need to know because I can’t stand this stalemate any longer.’

Ada sighed, knowing that things were never going to be the same again between them.

‘We were in a somewhat compromising position. You murmured intimate affections that I was unaware existed in your head. We…almost kissed.’

Hecate looked appalled and ashamed.

‘Miss Cackle…I can only apologise for my boorish behaviour. There is absolutely no excuse I can give.’

‘Isn’t there?’

Ada’s piercing gaze halted her contrition.

‘I realise I’m rocking the boat here. But you want to know the truth of what happened. And I want to know if it was just the effects of the potion or it was your subconscious that led you.’

Hecate blinked at her. She wasn’t sure how to answer.

‘Did you really mean it when you told me how you adored me?’

Ada knew the blush on her face matched the woman opposite her but she carried on, trying to disregard the hesitant wobble in her voice.

‘Did you really want to touch me?’

Still she was met with silence.

‘Did you actually want to kiss me?’

Hecate began to tremble and Ada hoped that she hadn’t sounded accusatory.

‘I kept the rose. Just to remind me that it wasn’t a dream’ she said softly. ‘I never meant to make you feel uncomfortable. I’ll remove it if it does.’

‘No! Don’t.’

The stillness was becoming suffocating. Hecate tried to tear through it.

‘Yes. To everything. I know I wasn’t aware of what I was doing or saying but I meant it all.’

She could tell that she’d shocked Ada, judging by her quick intake of breath. That the headmistress was prepared to believe that the encounter had been an unfortunate side effect of the potion and she had been reading too much into it.

‘You did?’

Her tone of voice alerted Hecate to the realisation that Ada had been hoping that she had acted true to her heart. That Hecate was not the only one who had hidden her feelings all these years.

Ada felt the relief wash over her like cool water. She knew it must have shown because the anguish swept away from Hecate’s face, her body uncurled and a tentative lightness took over her frame.

‘I did.’

Ada’s smile was like sunlight among the rafters, chasing out all the doubts that Hecate had harboured.

‘I was hoping you’d say that’ she whispered and Hecate stumbled to get up. Surely it was all a dream, she thought but as soon as she was in clutching distance, Ada anchored her by the collar to complete the final piece in the puzzle. It was a kiss that dreams were made of.


End file.
